Dushanbe

Hi all!

I landed in Dushanbe this morning to begin my work with the FirstMicroFinance Bank. Traveling through Kabul airport is always a nightmare and an early flight didn't help matters much. The plane was so tiny, I've never been on a plane that small - there were like 20 seats maximum. The flight ended up landing on time and I had no problem getting my visa. One of the Office Assistants picked me up from the airport and took me to see my apartment. I am staying basically in 'downtown' and am about a 20 minute walk from the office. The place is huge, super clean and has pretty much everything, AC being the most important, because it's easily like 38 degrees here. Hot Hot Hot!

I'm at the office now and absolutely exhausted, therefore, totally unmotivated to start working on the report. I didn't sleep last night before the flight because we were celebrating my birthday and by the time I could even go to sleep I was nervous I would miss the flight. I'm here for two weeks so should have plenty of time to work. It doesn't seem like there is too much to do around here. I was trying to do some research online to get some ideas as to what to do this weekend. I think I'll just walk around the area and hopefully come across something interesting. I want to see if I can get up to Khorog at some point, so maybe I will try and do that next weekend. The flight is apparently super scary because you fly pretty close to the mountains. They also won't run the flight if it's really foggy, so it's a little risky if I have to be back here for meetings and such.

Anyways I'm going to see if I can get outta here ASAP, I've been sitting here doing for the last little while.

News

So you all have probably been wondering why I haven't been posting much lately. Things have been pretty busy with work and I have some exciting news to share....

I was offered a job here a few weeks ago as the Public Relations Specialist on staff. They would like me to run the domestic and international public relations strategy for the whole company once my internship contract is over. I have accepted, yes I know I'm crazy, but it’s an amazing opportunity to make some good contacts and take on more of a management role. They are looking to hire me a local staff member to provide support here in Kabul, and then will ultimately hire me two staff members who will work in the regions. I'm going to get to do some traveling throughout the country (don't worry I won't be anywhere near the Taliban in the south) and they will be even be providing me with some advanced training, which I was already looking to do in the near future. Up until now the company has only implemented an international PR strategy, so I will be working with our international agency to maintain our program, and will also be creating my own plan to be implemented in the coming months. The last few weeks I've been starting to adjust into my new role - a lot more meetings and things to do. This week I'll be meeting with our regional team to brief them on the strategy for the coming months and hopefully we'll go from there. I'm really excited to work on this project from the inital stages and it will be interesting to see what happens in the coming months.
I'm here until July 6 and then I'm off to Tajikistan for two weeks to work on the project for the FMFB, then I am back here for 3-4 days and then in Vancouver for two weeks. Super excited about being home and it'll be good to get a bit of a break.

Most likely I'm off to Herat on Saturday, province on the west coast to learn a bit more about the situation there, so that my regional strategy can be better developed. I'm really excited to get out of the city for a bit. I'll probably be there until Monday and then back here for our Operations Review and then off to Dushanbe. Things are hectic, but good overall :) I'll be sure to post pictures from my trip to Herat, I've heard it's beautiful.

Hope things are well with everyone...Khuda Hafiz

Bag-e-Babur and Istalif

So...

I haven't written in ages. Things have been really busy at work. I've been getting a few new projects, which have been keeping me in the office a lot more. I've also been planning my trip to Tajikistan. I'll be leaving Kabul on July 6 and will be in Dushanbe for two weeks working on the Annual Report for the FirstMicroFinance Bank there. I'm really excited about the project, and I'll hopefully get help them with other marketing/communications initiatives while I'm there.

A few weeks ago, I visited Bag-e-Babur finally, an AKTC project here in Kabul. We went on Saturday afternoon, so it was pretty quiet. Apparently, on Fridays its packed with families picnicking. One of the security guards took us in to see where Babur's family was buried. I'm going to post the pics, so you'll really be able to see the beauty of the gardens. There is still some landscaping work to be done.

Last weekend I got to visit Istalif, a village about two hours outside of Kabul. It's an area left devastated by the Taliban and the Northern Alliance. It's not in the greatest shape but a small artisan community has emerged which makes pottery in particular. They are big on using colours like royal blue and turquoise. I picked up some gorgeous bowls. We spent very little time in Istalif, and ended up going to eat afterwards at a restaurant nearby.

Hope things are treating you all well...until next time.

....

Today I had to go to the FMFB here in Kabul to work on the Annual Report. I ended up leaving the office and taking a bodyguard with me. The bodyguard couldn't stay with me so told me to call a car to take me home in advance. I've done this before, totally safe, and the car usually waits outside. So after my meeting, I went down to the entrance/lobby and the car isn't there. I decide to call our dispatch for cars to find out where the driver is and no one picks up. I call at least 10 times, no one picks up. So I'm waiting, still everything is okay. Then the power goes out. Still everything is okay. Then I turn around and I notice the security guard of the building is taking photographs of me on his mobile phone. Not like one or two, my like continuously taking photographs of me. So what did I do? Nothing.

Now this may sound a little drama induced to some of you. But, if I was in Canada and something like that happened, I could say something. But here, today I realized, my voice has literally been taken away from me. Being a woman in Afghanistan, even a foreigner or ex-pat, you cannot stand up for yourself, you cannot do anything. I literally became an object standing there, nothing else. I couldn't speak back, I couldn't take any sort of action. I was just left standing there, voiceless. To tell you the truth, I've never felt uncomfortable here until now. With the power going off and the guy snapping pictures, especially a building security guard, it didn't sit right with me (not to mention that my phone was on low-battery). I called our security guards manager and he ended up sending me a car full of three armed guards to pick me up within five minutes.

I came home and just cried because I've never felt like this, so helpless that I couldn't speak out or say anything. I ended up talking to my best friend in Canada about the whole situation and it suddenly hit me in explaining the whole situation to her. How many women go through similar and even worse situations where they can't stand up for themselves each and everyday? Hundreds of women are beaten, abused and raped, every single day. Women live their lives without their voice. At the end of the day, I am privileged to have had my voice for all these years, lucky to have been able to speak out all those times I needed to speak. Today, I realized how lucky I am to be a Canadian woman. Ironically, I'm speechless, and totally humbled.

A good lesson, a tough day...

Attack in Kabul

This morning I had to be at the office earlier than usual for an event, so I ended up grabbing a quick breakfast and then getting into my car around 8am. I arrived in the office at about 8:25am and got a call from a friend asking where I was. He told me that there had been an attack at about 8:14am west on the road on which we live. We had received warnings yesterday that an attack was planned on a high-profile target in Kabul, and had been instructed to take an alternative route to the office. We didn’t really think that this would hit so close to home, literally. A couple of my friends who live in the same compound, just on the other side, heard and felt the blast this morning. It’s scary to think if I had left five or ten minutes later that I could have easily been right in the middle of it all. A lot of my co-workers and friends were stuck at home until noon because crews were busy cleaning everything up. We found out that the attack was planned on ISAF – the coalition troops, none of whom were killed. Three civilians are reported dead.

Everyone here is fine; I’m a bit shaken up because this is the first time anything like this has happened since I’ve been here. Our security department is taking the appropriate measures to ensure everyone’s safety. No need to worry otherwise. BBC and AP picked up the story, so I thought I would write about it, before I got e-mails/calls of worry.

Our security restrictions had been lessened and curfew had been extended for the last couple of weeks, but I think things will be tightened for the next couple of weeks for sure. I think we’ll probably lay-low this weekend and just take it easy at home. After something like this, it doesn’t really make you want to be out and about in the city, but we’ll see what happens.

Hope everyone is well

Khuda Hafiz…

Serena Hotel, Parties and Salang Pass